When To See Japan's Cherry Blossom Trees in Full Bloom

If you didn’t already know, Japan takes its cherry blossom season extremely seriously: blogs, papers, weekly reports, trends, spas and even talk shows follow the blooms across the country. They’ve even got a special Japanese word devoted to cherry blossom-watching: Hanami. OTT? Of course not. Here’s when it’s all set to happen.

So, when is it all happening? The forecast, for now, estimates that the country’s cherry blossoms will start to flower and reach full bloom around March 30, 2017. Covering over 1,000 locations across the bloomin’ beautiful nation, the best spots to snap that perfect Instagram range from Hokkaido, the northernmost of Japan’s islands, to Kagoshima, a seaside prefecture on Kyushu, Tokyo.

For the most awesome pics, get to Nakameguro, Sapporo, Sendai, Tokyo, Nagoya, Osaka, Fukuoka and Kagoshima, where flower reports are published weekly for each city.

Cherry blossoms near Mount Fuji | jiratto /Shutterstock

It’s not all concrete, though. Everything is weather-dependent, and according to the Japan Meteorological Corporation, the “flowering and full bloom dates of cherry blossoms depend on the temperature patterns from autumn of the preceding year.”